I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera | Details | AllMusic I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opera Share this page google+ Description by Anne Feeney The story of Romeo and Juliet has inspired literally hundreds of operas, most of them based on the Shakespeare play. Bellini 's treatment, however, with a libretto by Felice Romani , was not based on Shakespeare , but on a Renaissance story that Shakespeare had also used as a source. I Capuleti e i Montecchi, the most notable Romeo and Juliet opera from the bel canto era, emphasizes the poignancy of the story. Due largely to the limitations of the singers who would be performing at the premiere in Venice, Bellini made Romeo into a trouser role formezzo-soprano (a device that by then was considered slightly old-fashioned for a romantic lead), but the choice also emphasizes the youth and vulnerability of the lovers. While there are fiery moments, particularly the various martial declarations in the first scene by Tebaldo and Romeo, most of the opera spins out extended threads of wistful and longing song, in passages that are among the best of the bel canto elegiac style.

The opera resembles Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet only in the names of the protagonists and the faked death/missed messages debacle. Romani trimmed characters out of the story line and simplified it - the only soloists are Romeo, Juliet (Giulietta), Juliet's father, Lorenzo (here a physician rather than a cleric), and Tebaldo (who is now the Capulet engaged to Juliet), and when the opera opens, Romeo and Juliet have already met and fallen in love. "Oh, quante volte," Giulietta's opening aria in which she longs for Romeo to return to her, is the opera's best-known aria and is highly typical of the entire work. Romeo has one martial cabaletta after the Capulets reject an offer of peace, but otherwise his music, too, mostly expresses the vulnerability and pathos of the two lovers. However, Bellini 's mastery is not just in the beauty of the music for the lovers, but in the way it is set against the bloodthirsty music of the chorus, showing both families in the grip of war fever.

Bellini used something of the same technique later, in Norma; there the stark contrast is largely limited to the first act, rather than being a focal point of the entire opera. Bellini was only 29 when he began his setting, but he had already enjoyed two major critical successes (Il Pirata in 1827 and La straniera in 1829) as well as three other operas and numerous songs and pieces of sacred music. For many, the work opens Bellini 's mature period as a composer, displaying a powerful grasp on musical structure and harmony. His characteristic blending of arioso and aria and intensely melodic setting of recitative (which at times almost becomes indistinguishable from arioso) is already present in many moments, most notably in the final ensemble, and this is a style he was to bring to much fuller fruition in La sonnambula, Norma, and I Puritani. While much of the opera contains reworked materials, the reworkings were generally improvements on their originals. Romeo and Juliet was Bellini 's first opera to premiere in Venice at La Fenice, where it enjoyed an enormous success.

In 1833, it premiered in London at the King's Theater in the spring (where Bellini was present to witness this new triumph) and at the Paris Opera in the fall, where once again it was very successfully received. Bellini enjoyed some secret personal satisfaction from these successes: the opera included reworked versions of several melodies from Zaira, which Bellini believed had been unjustly labeled a failure. In the later part of the century, the work dropped in critical opinion, though it retained some popularity on the stage. Franz Liszt , Berlioz , and Wagner all condemned it as hopelessly old-fashioned, although even such musical progressives could not deny the appeal and richness of the melodies. It was revived in 1935, the centenary of Bellini 's death, and during the bel canto revivals of the later twentieth century it was a regular if not frequent item in the repertoire of both opera houses and recording studios. In 1966, Claudio Abbado even created a version assigning Romeo to a tenor, but it was not widely adopted: almost without exception, Romeo remained a trouser role.

Parts/Movements È serbata a questa acciaro L'amo tanto, e m'è si cara Se Romeo t'uccise un figlio La tremenda ultrice spada Sì fuggire: noi non resta Vieni, ah! vieni, e in me riposa Lieta notte avventurosa Soccorso, sostegno, accordagli o cielo Se ogni speme è a mio rapita Morte io non tremo il sai Ah! non poss'io partire Stolto! ad un sol mio grido Ella è morta Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi Format: Audio CD | Verified Purchase This opera is wonderfully alive in this recording --- vocally and in the vibrant conducting by Patane. For the first time I really understood why it is said that the essence of the drama in bel canto lies in the melody. It is, in the end, through the singing and its shaping and modulation that the opera succeeds or fails as theater. Though other musical elements (harmony, rhythm, contrast)are combined in very pleasing way, it is melody that expresses the individuality and specificity of the dramatic moment.

In this respect, Janet Baker's supreme artistic gifts rise to meet a very difficult technical challenge as Romeo. Her sculpting of melody, the richness and evenness of vocal emission across a tremendous vocal range, and the dramatic thrust and sweep of her characterisation render her the outstanding Romeo on record (listen to 'Se Romeo t'uccise suo figlio' for an example of melody providing all the dramatic propulsion). Sills is interpretatively very fine, bright-voiced and agile --- one only misses firmness of tone (particularly on high) and more variety of color. But the two wonderful mezzo/soprano duets are exquisite: Baker sings a stanza, and then Sills mirrors with exactly the same phrasing and feeling --- a poignant effect. All in all, for me, this outclasses the newer competition (RCA, Teldec) which seem to all have a strange vividness, like an object under a very bright, but artificial, light. Here, on the other hand, the lyric shadings of the tragedy are as much in evidence as the underlying passion, but the beauty is expressed completely in and of itself, not by an obvious attempt to foreshadow Verdi.

The excellent sound of this superbly balanced reading enables it to radiate the warmth and fragility of the brief era of bel canto itself. 0Comment | 32 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse Comment Format: Audio CD | Verified Purchase Back in the 1970's I was a very intense fan of both La Sills and La Baker. The very idea of both of them coming together for an opera recording sent this rapid fan into a severe swoon! Therefore, this recording sent me into a state of ecstasy! I along with other Sills and Baker fans would gather around my stereo listening to this recording with Baker and Sills weaving their vocal magic which always elicited from us many tears and bravos. At the time Beverly was a known commodity in Bell Canto operas; however, Janet was mainly known as a song recitalist. Nevertheless, Janet Baker, in this opera, proves that she could sing opera with the best of them showing her great operatic credentials-she is up to every vocal challenge Bellini throws at her. She tackles the role with great artistry and beauty of tone. Her last scene STILL dissolves me to copious tears.

In this recording Beverly sings a little cautiously not throwing out high E's with abandon as before; however, her years of experience being a sublime singer of Bell Canto operas comes through. Her singing is gorgeous, sweet and touching to the highest degree, I truly believe that this recording was one of her best. It truly is great to hear this recording again-ah the memories. Time has NOT diminished its appeal! 0Comment | 18 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse Comment Format: Audio CD | Verified Purchase I Capuleti e i Montecchi is a bel canto opera by Vincenzo Bellini loosely based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. There are three leading roles--Juliet, (Soprano) Romeo (Mezzo-Soprano) and Tebaldo. (Tenor) Probably the finest moments are: 1. Juliet's aria in the first act "O quante volte." It has such a lyrical, poetic and haunting feel. 2. The Romeo/Juliet duet shortly after "O quante volte." It consists of a group of phrases sung one after another in conversation between the mezzo and soprano. 3.

The rousing quintet between the three leads and two basses in the finale of the first act. 4. Juliet's "Ah! non poss'io partire" in Act Two. Most opera fans are more familiar with the Anna Netrebko/Elina Garanca recording. To me, it's a toss-up on which recording is better. Beverly Sills is the better Juliet but Elina Garanca is the better Romeo. Beverly Sills is the perfect Juliet. Her sweet, bright, crystal-clear voice perfectly captures the innocent, naive, fragile essence of the character. Her florid runs, trills and high notes are crisp, clean and spot on as always. Netrebko sings fairly well, but her rich, dark, chocolately voice is too mature sounding for Juliet. Furthermore, the timbres of Netrebko and Garanca sound so similar that when they sing the duets it's like one singer dueting himself with two takes. Janet Baker has a smooth, silky, reedy voice. If I don't think she was the best Romeo it's not because of any percievable flaw I find in her singing but simply because Garanca has a richer, fuller tone and more powerful upper register.

Nicolai Gedda (Tebaldo) has a rich, warm timbre. Every note sounds a brass bell and he is comfortable from top to bottom. Giuseppe Patane conducts with exquiste subtley and finesse. Five Stars. Format: Audio CD | Verified Purchase So far as stage works go, this bel canto opera by Bellini is staged way less than, say, Norma. Other of the composer's works are noted for their vocalism, if we nowadays find the plots less than engaging. Think of Il Pirata, La Sonnambula, I Puritani, Beatrice di Tenda, La Straniera, Bianca e Fernando, Zaira, Adelson e Salvini. A sense of familiarity drops off pretty quickly after Norma. All the clues here are that EMI intended this set to be a major milestone. It is, in fact, to my ears. The band is New Philharmonia of London - surely a splurge for a lesser known Bellini outing, if there every was one. The cast splurges, too. Our Romeo star is Janet Baker. Our Guilietta star is Beverly Sills. Teobaldo is sung by Nicolai Gedda.

Robert Lloyd takes Capellio. Raimund Herincz, Lorenzo. If anybody takes a back seat in these efforts, the opera chorus is most likely to fade, seemingly transformed into an afterthought. Yet here we get the John Alldis Choir, singing well beyond the average stage chorus we would find in a decent regional opera house. Or even a major one. Finally, as if all those clues were not telling, we also get the conductor as star. Giuseppe Patane was recorded far less often than his merits indicated. I first came across him as leader in a Puccini Butterfly on vinyl Eurodisc, starring Maria Chiara. Then again in a second Butterfly where Veronica Kincses took Butterfly. Hard to miss how Patane brought higher polish and discipline to his work, hard not to notice his amazing results with the second set's Hungarian band. Then I ran across a disc of Rossini overtures, again with the conductor raising performance levels in Bamberg. Immediately I recalled Walter Legge of EMI saying, A first-rate conductor takes a fifth rate band and gets them playing like a second rate band.

Patane was committed, not a flash in the pan leading opera on the side as he schmoozed his way up the global big names ladders. He offered a brilliant combination of elusive musical qualities. In opera, Patane could breathe with the singers without in the least compromising his strong grasp of the tempo and the harmonic structures. This yields amazing narrative strength in, say, Verdi or Puccini. It is also amazing to hear in Bellini. Suddenly Bellini sounds like he was doing more than just giving his singers support in hackneyed accompaniments, chock full of old-fashioned melodramatic band gestures. This particular Bellini opera, then, though much less familiar on the stage, hangs all together. Under Patane all the music sounds like Bellini really meant what he wrote. No filler. With such a firm frame set for his star singers, the cast shines in various constellations, all uncommonly brilliant and beautiful and besotted with the excellence that Patane engendered in performance. Now, oddly enough, these days our choices in this opera have multiplied. Romeos with Juliets are still less numerous than Normas with Adalgisas. Still.

Very nice readings are also available under Ricardo Muti at Covent Garden, Roberto Abbado in Munich, and Donald Runnicles in Scotland (of all things ..). Then add in a smattering of performance recordings with representative casts of changing eras, and then recall how Bellini is included on innumerable aria collections with a cornucopia of differently blessed voices. And yet. Did Dame Janet Baker ever really make a bad recording? Certainly not this time around. Ditto, Beverly Sills. (I still hear her as a tad less than utterly engaged in her Verdi Traviata on EMI, but not here, not at all. In this set we are right back, in the same compelling vocal territory as her nearly unique Donizetti Lucia under Schippers, or her Donizetti Three Queen opera sets.) Nicolai Gedda shows off unexpected bel canto chops, especially for fans who know him mainly in Puccini or Bizet or Verdi. And Robert Lloyd and Raimund Herincx manager the lower range characters without making Bellini sound too much like Verdi. The duets between Romeo (Baker) and Guilietta (Sills) are - as the saying goes - to die for.

One belatedly rather wishes that Baker and Sills had gotten the studio time that was devoted to Sutherland and Horne? In this two-disc set offered so inexpensively, a libretto is not included. Yet interested listeners may go to the EMI Classics web site on the internet to download those materials as needed. Anybody generally familiar with the Rome and Juliet plot can probably manage to sit through the whole opera, minus the libretto study. Bellini did simplify the Shakespeare cast of characters, streamlining the plot. But this story has stayed evergreen, unlike the small village rumor mill about a sleepwalking Amina in La Sonnambula. Plot aside, though not too far aside in this one - the music is the thing. What glorious music, what singing. No question, five stars. Probably a classic of the recorded arts. I put this one right up there with Sills in Lucia under Schippers. Glad I got around to it, and now I wonder why ever in the world did I delay? I just wasn't enough over my love affair with Donizetti to get back to Bellini. Don't hesitate, don't even go slow on this one. 0Comment | 7 people found this helpful.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse Comment Format: Audio CD | Verified Purchase Source: Studio recording made at Abbey Road Studio, London, June 16-25, 1975. Sound: Analog stereo. The engineering is competent, I suppose, but as a matter of personal taste I do not care for the distant and echo-y soundscape. It sounds as though the opera were taking place at the far end of a Gothic cathedral. Documentation: No printed libretto, although there is a reference to an on-line libretto available at the EMI Classics website, (which failed to download in five tries over two days) just in case I want to listen to this opera while I am working at my computer. The accompanying essay by James Harding is the most useless I have ever found in a CD case--and that is by no means an easily earned distinction. Harding is vitally interested in Bellini's lame love life but indifferent to such trifles as the plot of the opera he is supposed to be writing about. Format: Disk 1, Act I, Scenes 1 and 2; 60:42.

Disk 2, Act I, Scene 3; Act II, Scenes 1-3; 74:23. Bellini premiered "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" at Teatro La Fenice in Venice exactly one month before his twenty-ninth birthday. It was a success but it was not without critics. In his essay, Harding writes, "It was unfair of Berlioz to denounce I Capuleti e i Montecchi as a travesty of Shakespeare." Berlioz clearly had a point, for where the Bard had twenty characters, the librettist "Romani made do with only five. You will look in vain," Harding gushes on, "for the Nurse and Friar Laurence" and, I must add, for Mercutio, Benvolio and Paris, too. In the opera, Paris and Tybalt become a single character, Tebaldo, to the great detriment of the plot. "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" came about midway in Bellini's too short career. The really big hits on which his fame rests were yet to come.

The music is competent but somehow lacking that indefinable ping that makes "La Sonnambula," "Norma" and "I Puritani" extraordinary. Overall, the performance is good. Best by far in the cast is Janet Baker. She does not generate overt excitement but she offers an overwhelming sense of rightness when she essays any part in the narrow range that she made her own. This recording is a little late for the best of Sills but she is still very bright and amazingly agile. As always, I feel that her voice is just a little too cool and too thin, but that is purely a matter of personal taste. It is also late for Nicolai Gedda, who sounds unexpectedly baritonal as Tebaldo, a part that any other 19th Century composer would surely have written for a baritone. (I know, I know, Gounod's Tybalt is a tenor. I sang the role, myself, back in college days. But Gounod's Tybalt is markedly different in character from Bellini's Tebaldo-Paris.) Gedda is very good, but I am not at all sure that I would have recognized him if his name had not been on the cover.

"I Capuleti e i Montecchi" is not a great opera, but three famous and very fine singers offer intelligent and entertaining performances. That's worth five stars as far as I'm concerned. FOR THE HISTORICALLY MINDED: William Shakespeare wrote his "Romeo and Juliet" in the 1590s, in the early days of his career. As was usual for him, he based his play on older materials. The first literary mention of the Montagus and the Capulets is in Dante's "Purgatorio," vi, lines 106-108. The Montagus lived in Verona and the Capulets in Cremona. They were used by Dante as examples of warring factions that had been exterminated. About 1530, Luigi da Porto mistakenly assumed that the Montagus and the Capulets had both resided in Verona and had feuded with one another. He worked up a tale that involved two young members of his warring clans, Giulietta and Romeo. In 1554, Matteo Bandello published a novella called "Romeo e Giulietta" which proved to be an international hit.

A French version was adapted from Bandello by Pierre Boaistuau in 1559. This, in turn, was translated into English in 1562 by Arthur Brooke as a "tragical history" in verse form called "Romeus and Juliet," later to be pounced on by Will Shakespeare in search of a popular hit. The only major changes that Shakespeare made in Brooke's plot were to compress the time frame and to introduce Tybalt into the story at an earlier point in order to build him up as a worthy adversary for Romeo. And, oh, yes, he created an array of living characters such as had never been conceived before. A number of commentators have taken note of the much simplified plot of "I Capuleti e i Montecchi." They have accounted for it by declaring that Shakespeare's version was not yet well-known in the world, so Romani must have based his work on an earlier version of the story, by which I presume they mean by Bandello or even by da Porto. I don't buy that explanation. By 1830, the cult of Bardolatry was firmly established.

The standard German translations (that the Germans to this day hold to be superior to the English originals) were well along. Two generations earlier, the tourist industry of Stratford Upon Avon had been given a kick start by the great actor, Garrick (in a bicentennial celebration conceived by David Garrick, written by David Garrick, produced by David Garrick, directed by David Garrick and starring David Garrick--additional dialogue by W. Shakespeare.) Just seventeen years later, Verdi would write his "Macbeth" and make sketches for a "King Lear," that greatest of all operatic might-have-beens. One of the twenty or so books that Verdi kept close to himself until the day he died was an Italian translation of the works of Shakespeare. No, I do not think that Romani dealt with any obscure 16th Century originals. I think that he exercised a hack's privilege to pillage a respectable source for his convenience. Berlioz was correct. In both the literal and the figurative senses of the word, this is a travesty. 0Comment | 14 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes No Report abuse Comment Vincenzo Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi - Elīna Garanča,Anna Netrebko,Fabio Luisi | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic Vincenzo Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi AllMusic Rating google+ AllMusic Review by Stephen Eddins Bellini 's I Capuleti e i Montecchi bears little resemblance to Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet for a good reason; it's based not on the play but on a sixteenth century Italian story that Shakespeare also used source material. Librettist Felice Romani pared the story down to five characters and simplified the plot so that it is like Shakespeare 's only in broadest outline. This recording, taken from a live 2008 Vienna performance, delivers fully on the promise of the era of bel canto: beautiful singing. Anna Netrebko is a radiant Juliet. She soars over the orchestra and other singers with agility and grace, and her tone is unfailingly focused, fresh, and pure. She also brings a touching and convincing vulnerability to the role.

Bellini wrote Romeo as a trouser role for mezzo-soprano (even though the practice had largely been abandoned at that point) because, having worked with the singers at La Fenice, where the work would have its premiere, he knew there was no tenor in the company who could adequately fill a leading romantic role, and legendary mezzo Giuditta Grisi was conveniently available. It requires something of a leap to accept this convention in bel canto repertoire, but Elína Garanca is vocally ideal for this music. She sings with exceptional depth and tonal richness, and her legato is wonderfully creamy. Bass Tiziano Bracci , tenor Joseph Calleja , and baritone Robert Gleadow make strong impressions in their relatively brief roles, particularly Calleja as Tebaldo, even though his duets with his rival Romeo, because of the voicing, tend to sound like love duets. Bellini provides the singers with music of extraordinary grace, but the plot doesn't activate his strongest dramatic instincts, and the opera as a whole succeeds far better as an opportunity for showcasing beautiful singing than as a coherent theatrical experience.

Fabio Luisi leads Wiener Symphoniker and Wiener Singakademie in an expressive and well-paced performance. The sound is remarkably clean, expansive, and well-balanced for a live performance, with virtually no stage or audience noise. Track Listing - Disc 1 Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Patane, New Philharmonia, John Alldis Choir, Janet Baker, Beverly Sills, Robert Lloyd, Nicolai Gedda, Raimund Herincx - Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi - Amazon.com Music To view this video download Flash Player Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi Audio CD, February 15, 2005 "Please retry" $13.99 Free Shipping for Prime Members | Fast, FREE Shipping with Amazon Prime Only 1 left in stock. Sold by NEW 2 LIKE NEW BOOKS and Fulfilled by Amazon . Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon . Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Next Special Offers and Product Promotions Stream I Capuleti E I Montecchi by Giuseppe Patanè/Beverly Sills/Dame Janet Baker/Nicolai Gedda and tens of millions of other songs on all your devices with Amazon Music Unlimited . Exclusive discount for Prime members.

Sample this album Artist - Artist (Sample) 1 3 30 4 30 6 30 8 30 9 30 11 30 12 30 13 30 14 30 15 30 16 30 17 30 1 30 2 30 3 30 5 30 8 30 10 30 11 30 13 30 14 30 16 30 17 30 18 30 19 30 Listen Now $1.29 Sold by Amazon Digital Services LLC. Additional taxes may apply. By placing your order, you agree to our Terms of Use .

Product Details Audio CD (February 15, 2005) SPARS Code: DDD By Kurt Miller on June 25, 2013 Format: Audio CD|Verified Purchase I Capuleti e i Montecchi is a bel canto opera by Vincenzo Bellini loosely based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. There are three leading roles--Juliet, (Soprano) Romeo (Mezzo-Soprano) and Tebaldo. (Tenor) Probably the finest moments are: 1. Juliet's aria in the first act "O quante volte." It has such a lyrical, poetic and haunting feel. 2. The Romeo/Juliet duet shortly after "O quante volte." It consists of a group of phrases sung one after another in conversation between the mezzo and soprano. 3. The rousing quintet between the three leads and two basses in the finale of the first act. 4. Juliet's "Ah! non poss'io partire" in Act Two. Most opera fans are more familiar with the Anna Netrebko/Elina Garanca recording. To me, it's a toss-up on which recording is better.

Beverly Sills is the better Juliet but Elina Garanca is the better Romeo. Beverly Sills is the perfect Juliet. Her sweet, bright, crystal-clear voice perfectly captures the innocent, naive, fragile essence of the character. Her florid runs, trills and high notes are crisp, clean and spot on as always. Netrebko sings fairly well, but her rich, dark, chocolately voice is too mature sounding for Juliet. Furthermore, the timbres of Netrebko and Garanca sound so similar that when they sing the duets it's like one singer dueting himself with two takes. Janet Baker has a smooth, silky, reedy voice. If I don't think she was the best Romeo it's not because of any percievable flaw I find in her singing but simply because Garanca has a richer, fuller tone and more powerful upper register. Nicolai Gedda (Tebaldo) has a rich, warm timbre. Every note sounds a brass bell and he is comfortable from top to bottom. Giuseppe Patane conducts with exquiste subtley and finesse. Five Stars.

By Scoglio on March 28, 2005 Format: Audio CD|Verified Purchase This opera is wonderfully alive in this recording --- vocally and in the vibrant conducting by Patane. For the first time I really understood why it is said that the essence of the drama in bel canto lies in the melody. It is, in the end, through the singing and its shaping and modulation that the opera succeeds or fails as theater. Though other musical elements (harmony, rhythm, contrast)are combined in very pleasing way, it is melody that expresses the individuality and specificity of the dramatic moment. In this respect, Janet Baker's supreme artistic gifts rise to meet a very difficult technical challenge as Romeo. Her sculpting of melody, the richness and evenness of vocal emission across a tremendous vocal range, and the dramatic thrust and sweep of her characterisation render her the outstanding Romeo on record (listen to 'Se Romeo t'uccise suo figlio' for an example of melody providing all the dramatic propulsion). Sills is interpretatively very fine, bright-voiced and agile --- one only misses firmness of tone (particularly on high) and more variety of color.

But the two wonderful mezzo/soprano duets are exquisite: Baker sings a stanza, and then Sills mirrors with exactly the same phrasing and feeling --- a poignant effect. All in all, for me, this outclasses the newer competition (RCA, Teldec) which seem to all have a strange vividness, like an object under a very bright, but artificial, light. Here, on the other hand, the lyric shadings of the tragedy are as much in evidence as the underlying passion, but the beauty is expressed completely in and of itself, not by an obvious attempt to foreshadow Verdi. The excellent sound of this superbly balanced reading enables it to radiate the warmth and fragility of the brief era of bel canto itself. By drdanfee on January 16, 2009 Format: Audio CD|Verified Purchase So far as stage works go, this bel canto opera by Bellini is staged way less than, say, Norma. Other of the composer's works are noted for their vocalism, if we nowadays find the plots less than engaging.

Think of Il Pirata, La Sonnambula, I Puritani, Beatrice di Tenda, La Straniera, Bianca e Fernando, Zaira, Adelson e Salvini. A sense of familiarity drops off pretty quickly after Norma. All the clues here are that EMI intended this set to be a major milestone. It is, in fact, to my ears. The band is New Philharmonia of London - surely a splurge for a lesser known Bellini outing, if there every was one. The cast splurges, too. Our Romeo star is Janet Baker. Our Guilietta star is Beverly Sills. Teobaldo is sung by Nicolai Gedda. Robert Lloyd takes Capellio. Raimund Herincz, Lorenzo. If anybody takes a back seat in these efforts, the opera chorus is most likely to fade, seemingly transformed into an afterthought. Yet here we get the John Alldis Choir, singing well beyond the average stage chorus we would find in a decent regional opera house. Or even a major one. Finally, as if all those clues were not telling, we also get the conductor as star. Giuseppe Patane was recorded far less often than his merits indicated.

I first came across him as leader in a Puccini Butterfly on vinyl Eurodisc, starring Maria Chiara. Then again in a second Butterfly where Veronica Kincses took Butterfly. Hard to miss how Patane brought higher polish and discipline to his work, hard not to notice his amazing results with the second set's Hungarian band. Then I ran across a disc of Rossini overtures, again with the conductor raising performance levels in Bamberg. Immediately I recalled Walter Legge of EMI saying, A first-rate conductor takes a fifth rate band and gets them playing like a second rate band. Patane was committed, not a flash in the pan leading opera on the side as he schmoozed his way up the global big names ladders. He offered a brilliant combination of elusive musical qualities. In opera, Patane could breathe with the singers without in the least compromising his strong grasp of the tempo and the harmonic structures. This yields amazing narrative strength in, say, Verdi or Puccini. It is also amazing to hear in Bellini. Suddenly Bellini sounds like he was doing more than just giving his singers support in hackneyed accompaniments, chock full of old-fashioned melodramatic band gestures.

This particular Bellini opera, then, though much less familiar on the stage, hangs all together. Under Patane all the music sounds like Bellini really meant what he wrote. No filler. With such a firm frame set for his star singers, the cast shines in various constellations, all uncommonly brilliant and beautiful and besotted with the excellence that Patane engendered in performance. Now, oddly enough, these days our choices in this opera have multiplied. Romeos with Juliets are still less numerous than Normas with Adalgisas. Still. Very nice readings are also available under Ricardo Muti at Covent Garden, Roberto Abbado in Munich, and Donald Runnicles in Scotland (of all things ..). Then add in a smattering of performance recordings with representative casts of changing eras, and then recall how Bellini is included on innumerable aria collections with a cornucopia of differently blessed voices. And yet. Did Dame Janet Baker ever really make a bad recording? Certainly not this time around. Ditto, Beverly Sills. (I still hear her as a tad less than utterly engaged in her Verdi Traviata on EMI, but not here, not at all.

In this set we are right back, in the same compelling vocal territory as her nearly unique Donizetti Lucia under Schippers, or her Donizetti Three Queen opera sets.) Nicolai Gedda shows off unexpected bel canto chops, especially for fans who know him mainly in Puccini or Bizet or Verdi. And Robert Lloyd and Raimund Herincx manager the lower range characters without making Bellini sound too much like Verdi. The duets between Romeo (Baker) and Guilietta (Sills) are - as the saying goes - to die for. One belatedly rather wishes that Baker and Sills had gotten the studio time that was devoted to Sutherland and Horne? In this two-disc set offered so inexpensively, a libretto is not included. Yet interested listeners may go to the EMI Classics web site on the internet to download those materials as needed. Anybody generally familiar with the Rome and Juliet plot can probably manage to sit through the whole opera, minus the libretto study. Bellini did simplify the Shakespeare cast of characters, streamlining the plot. But this story has stayed evergreen, unlike the small village rumor mill about a sleepwalking Amina in La Sonnambula.

Plot aside, though not too far aside in this one - the music is the thing. What glorious music, what singing. No question, five stars. Probably a classic of the recorded arts. I put this one right up there with Sills in Lucia under Schippers. Glad I got around to it, and now I wonder why ever in the world did I delay? I just wasn't enough over my love affair with Donizetti to get back to Bellini. Don't hesitate, don't even go slow on this one. I Capuleti e i Montecchi - Teatro La Fenice (2015) (Production - Venise, italy) | Opera Online - The opera lovers web site New production Co-production Arena di Verona and Greek National Opera Vincenzo Bellini wrote two tragic operas for Teatro La Fenice: I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Beatrice di Tenda.

The first, composed in 1830 and to the story of Romeo and Juliet but not based on Shakespeare but rather on an early nineteenth-century tragedy by Luigi Scevola in a new production by Arnaud Bernard (direction), Alessandro Camera (sets) and Maria Carla Ricotti (costumes), co-produced with Fondazione Arena di Verona (where it was presented at the Teatro Filarmonico in November 2013) and with the Greek National Opera of Athens. The cast includes Jessica Pratt and Mihaela Marcu as Giulietta; Sonia Ganassi and Paola Gardina as Romeo; Shalva Mukeria and Francesco Marsiglia as Tebaldo; Rubén Amoretti as Capellio; and Luca Dall’Amico as Lorenzo, conducted by Omer Meir Wellber. The most famous and ill-starred love story of all times, and made immortal by Shakespeare’s play of the same name, Romeo and Juliet has often been put to music.

One of the most popular versions is the two-act opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which Teatro La Fenice commissioned Vincenzo Bellini with for the 1830 Carnival, and it debuted on 11 March. Felice Romani was the author of the libretto, as well as of the later Sonnambula and Norma, and he based the subject on Italian literary tradition, and in particular on a novella by the Renaissance author Matteo Bandello and an early nineteenth-century tragedy by Luigi Scevola. As in the earlier Zaira, once again the protagonists’ voices are female and Romeo is a mezzo soprano en travesti. Events - Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi | Teatro La Fenice La Fenice Opera House Orchestra and Chorus Chorus Master Claudio Marino Moretti italian and english surtitles new production La Fenice Opera House co-production Arena di Verona and Greek National Opera Vincenzo Bellini wrote two tragic operas for Teatro La Fenice: I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Beatrice di Tenda.

The first, composed in 1830 and to the story of Romeo and Juliet but not based on Shakespeare but rather on an early nineteenth-century tragedy by Luigi Scevola in a new production by Arnaud Bernard (direction), Alessandro Camera (sets) and Maria Carla Ricotti (costumes), co-produced with Fondazione Arena di Verona (where it was presented at the Teatro Filarmonico in November 2013) and with the Greek National Opera of Athens. The cast includes Jessica Pratt and Mihaela Marcu as Giulietta; Sonia Ganassi and Paola Gardina as Romeo; Shalva Mukeria and Francesco Marsiglia as Tebaldo; Rubén Amoretti as Capellio; and Luca Dall’Amico as Lorenzo, conducted by Omer Meir Wellber. The most famous and ill-starred love story of all times, and made immortal by Shakespeare’s play of the same name, Romeo and Juliet has often been put to music.

One of the most popular versions is the two-act opera I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which Teatro La Fenice commissioned Vincenzo Bellini with for the 1830 Carnival, and it debuted on 11 March. Felice Romani was the author of the libretto, as well as of the later Sonnambula and Norma, and he based the subject on Italian literary tradition, and in particular on a novella by the Renaissance author Matteo Bandello and an early nineteenth-century tragedy by Luigi Scevola. As in the earlier Zaira, once again the protagonists’ voices are female and Romeo is a mezzo soprano en travesti. © 2004/2017 - Teatro La Fenice - P.IVA 00187480272 - Tutti i diritti riservati Fondazione Teatro La Fenice - Campo S.

Fantin 1965 - 30124 Venezia I Capuleti e i Montecchi - 必应 Sign in I Capuleti e i Montecchi I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) is an Italian opera (Tragedia lirica) in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini. The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of the story of Romeo and Juliet for an opera by Nicola Vaccai called Giulietta e Romeo and based on the play of the same name by Luigi Scevola written in 1818, thus an Italian source rather than taken directly from William Shakespeare. Behind the libretto stand many Italian, ultimately Renaissance sources created by Matteo Bandello, and probably through their French translat ... (展开) ions by François de Belleforest and Pierre Boaistuau, rather than Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

The theme was very popular in Italy: there were earlier libretti by Luzzi for Marescalchi (1785, Venice), Foppa for Zingarelli (1796, Milan), and Buonaiuti for Pietro Carlo Guglielmi (1810, London). The first Italian libretto explicitly based on Shakespeare’s play did not appear until 1865; it was by M. M. Marcello, for Filippo Marchetti’s Romeo e Giulietta given in Trieste. Bellini was persuaded to write the opera for the 1830 Carnival season at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with only a month and a half available for composition. He succeeded by appropriating a large amount of music previously written for his unsuccessful opera Zaira. The first performance of I Capuleti e i Montecchi took place on 11 March 1830. I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) is an Italian opera (Tragedia lirica) ... The Capuleti and Montecchi rush in to discover the dead lovers, ...

… 01 Sinfonia. - I Capuleti e i Montecchi 02 Aggiorna appena ... (Coro). - I Capuleti e i Montecchi, ATTO PRIMA Scena 1 03 O di Capellio, generosi amici - I Capuleti e i ... Capuleti e i Montecchi: Act 2 : 'Deh! tu, bell'anima' (Romeo, Giulietta, Coro, Capellio, Lorenzo) 喜欢听"Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi / Larmore, Hong, et · · · · · ... 第一个在"Vincenzo Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi" 的论坛里发言 在豆瓣App讨论这张唱片 · · · · · · 用豆瓣App扫码，找人聊聊这张唱片。没有豆瓣App？ ... The best Italian cuisine is made using simple ingredients and a lot of technique, and at Capuleti e Montecchi on Dalton Road, they’re making it just right.

capuletiemontecchi.co.uk Bellini's Rare Bird: 'The Capulets And The Montagues' : NPR Eri Nakamura as Juliet and Tara Erraught as Romeo in the Bavarian State Opera production of Bellini's 'I Capuleti e i Montecchi.' Wilfried Hösl/Bavarian State Opera hide caption toggle caption Wilfried Hösl/Bavarian State Opera Eri Nakamura as Juliet and Tara Erraught as Romeo in the Bavarian State Opera production of Bellini's 'I Capuleti e i Montecchi.' Wilfried Hösl/Bavarian State Opera While it might seem surprising, Vincenzo Bellini 's The Capulets and the Montagues is a true rarity: a successful opera based on the celebrated tale of Romeo and Juliet. At first glance, you would think the story would be a natural for the opera house. There's the pair of passionate young lovers, kept apart by the pointless bickering of their colorful families; the kindly friend who comes up with an ingenious scheme for the lovers to be together; a simple mistake that leads to tragedy, heartbreak and death.

The Hit Single Midway through Act One, Juliet (soprano Eri Nakamura) is alone in her room. Dreading her marriage to Tebaldo, and longing for Romeo, she sings the aria "O quante volte," saying, "How many times must I weep ..." 'O quante volte' Embed Embed <iframe src="" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Whether it's found in the classic tragedy by Shakespeare or in the ancient legend that inspired it, the story would seem to have everything it needs to perk a composer's interest. And, true to form, it has led to lots of great concert music, including the famous Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture by Tchaikovsky , a ballet score by Prokofiev that's a staple in the orchestral repertory and a blockbuster "Dramatic Symphony" by Berlioz . Article continues after sponsorship The B Side Later in the first act, Romeo and Juliet meet secretly in her room, where Romeo (mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught) proposes that they run away together.

When Juliet hesitates, Romeo begins their scene-ending duet by singing "Vieni, e in me riposa" — "Come and rest in me." 'Vieni, e in me riposa' 4:23 Embed Embed <iframe src="" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> When it comes to opera, things have turned out far differently — though not through lack of effort. Dozens of composers have tried their hand at Romeo and Juliet operas, over a span of more than two hundred years, but almost none have made the grade. Ever heard of the 1776 opera by Georg Benda, or the 1862 version by Leopold Damrosch? How about the 1916 Romeo and Juliet by John Barkworth? Probably not — and there are plenty of other R & J obscurities where those came from. All told, there are really only two Romeo and Juliet operas that still hold the stage today.

One is the 1867 score by Charles Gounod , and the other is the drama featured here, Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi — The Capulets and the Montagues. Bellini wrote his opera in 1830, and while it took him only six weeks to finish it, that's not quite as impressive as it might sound. Much of its music had already been composed for an earlier opera called Zaira. That one didn't fare too well — it was actually hissed at its premiere. So Bellini promptly recycled the score to create The Capulets and the Montagues. When the new opera proved successful the composer took to calling it "Zaira's Revenge." On World of Opera, host Lisa Simeone presents Bellini's take on the Romeo and Juliet story from the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Soprano Eri Nakamura and mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught play the ill-fated lovers, in a production led by conductor Yves Abel. See the previous edition of World of Opera or the full archive . The Story Of 'The Capulets And The Montagues'

Question: I Capuleti e i Montecchi is an opera by Vincenzo Bellini based on which story?
Answer: Romeo And Juliet